Addiction, Depression & Suicide. Aging. Infectious Diseases. Immortality. Super Powers! A mathematical 'crystal ball' to predict calamities. Neuroscientists have come up with a mathematical equation that may help predict calamities such as financial crashes in economic systems and epileptic seizures in the brain. The University of Sussex-led study, published this week (24 October 2013) in Physical Review Letters, could have far-reaching implications.
If the principle is generalised in other real-world complex systems, such as climate change or disease control, it could open up the possibility of catastrophes being averted before they happen. In a collaboration between the University's Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science and the Centre for Research in Complex Systems at Charles Sturt University in Australia, researchers used mathematics and detailed computer simulations to show that a measure of 'information flow' reaches a peak just before a system moves from a healthy state to an unhealthy state. Professor Anil Seth, Co-Director of the Sackler Centre, says: "The implications of the work are far-reaching.
Injury. Scientists Create an Oxygen Particle Allows You To Live Without Breathing. When I was little, I would spend my summer swimming about in the pool pretending to be a mermaid. Unfortunately, my performances were never very successful. I would slide into the pool, glide beneath the water, and gracefully swim to the bottom to have a tea party.
Then I would surface, five seconds later, gasping and choking for air. But a recent discovery could forever change the way that we see water, and breathing in general. If you were unfortunate enough to miss it, in the summer of 2012 scientists were able to keep rabbits with blocked windpipes alive for up to 15 minutes without a single breath. This feat was accomplished after researchers injected oxygen-filled microparticles into the animals’ blood.
These microcapsules consist of a single-layer shell of lipids, each surrounding a small bubble of oxygen gas. The particles are injected directly into the bloodstream. Ultimately, this is of great assistance to anyone who has a blocked airway…or who is pretending to be a mermaid.
Robots. Virtual Reality. Live Without Money. Existential Stuff.